In a silver halide color photographic photosensitive material the color image is formed after exposing the material to light by the reaction between a primary aromatic amine developing agent which has been oxidized by color development and dye forming couplers (referred to hereinafter as couplers).
In general, color reproduction by means of the subtractive method is used, and in this method, yellow, magenta and cyan images which are of the complimentary colors, are formed to reproduce blue, green and red. Acylacetamide couplers are generally used for the yellow dye forming couplers (referred to hereinafter as yellow couplers) for forming the yellow dye image, 5-pyrazolone couplers are generally used as magenta couplers for forming the magenta image and phenol couplers and naphthol couplers are generally used as cyan couplers for forming the cyan image.
The yellow, magenta and cyan dyes obtained from these couplers are generally formed in a silver halide layer which is color sensitive to radiation which has a complimentary color relationship with the radiation which is absorbed by the dye, or in a layer adjacent thereto.
The acylacetamide couplers as typified by the benzoylacetanilide couplers and the pivaloylacetanilide couplers have generally been used in the past as yellow couplers, and in particular for color image forming purposes. The former couplers generally have a high coupling activity with the oxidized form of primary aromatic amine developing agents during development. The absorption coefficient of the yellow dyes which are formed are large, so they are used mainly in camera color photosensitive materials, and in particular in color negative films, where high speed is required. The latter couplers are such that the spectral absorption characteristics and fastness of the yellow dyes are excellent and so they are used mainly in color papers and color reversal films.
However, it cannot be said that graininess is completely satisfactory.